The article below originally appeared in the San Mateo Daily Journal and is being reprinted with permission.
Skyline College and College of San Mateo are sending both their women’s and men’s basketball teams to the California Community College Athletic Association state playoffs, with regional play beginning Wednesday evening at 7 p.m.
Only the 12th-seeded Skyline women (16-12) earned a home game The Trojans will host No. 21 College of Marin (16-10), with the winner slated to play at No. 8 Columbia (21-7) on Saturday in Sonora.
The No. 19 CSM women (18-9) will be on the road at No. 14 Shasta College (13-14) in Redding Wednesday. The winner plays at No. 3 College of the Sequoias (26-2) in Visalia.
The CSM men (13-15) also received a No. 19 seed and will play at No. 14 Gavilan (19-9). The Bulldogs, too, are bracketed with No. 3 seeded Sequoias (25-3). That means both Bulldog teams, if victorious, would travel to Visalia on Saturday.
The Bulldog men finished seventh in the Coast North, the state’s highest-rated conference, and earned their seed based upon their strong overall schedule. That included beating Coast South champion San Jose City College (24-4) – the No. 2 seed behind defending state champion City College of San Francisco (25-3), which took the No. 1 overall NorCal seed. The top eight teams have byes on Wednesday and host second round games Saturday.
Lady Bulldogs close season with OT win
Jayonnah Carter sank a 3-pointer with 3:49 left in overtime to give San Mateo a 62-61 lead and start a six-point run that led to a 67-65 win over visiting Chabot in Feb. 15 regular-season finale for the Bulldogs.
Venus-Miari Pascua completed that run with a basket and two free throws for a 66-61 advantage with 2:36 left and finished as CSM’s top scorer with 16 points. Carter had 15 points, five rebounds, three steals, and three assists.
San Mateo (5-5 Coast North) had trailed by 10, 56-46, with seven minutes left in regulation. The Bulldogs then went on a 10-0 run, anchored by Tiare Novero-Paaga’s 3, to tie it at 56 with 1:12 remaining. Chabot took the lead again with a minute left on a pair of free throws by Dede Franklin. Another 3 by Novero-Paaga with 41 seconds to go put CSM on top, 59-58. Chabot sent it to OT on a free throw by Franklin with 15 seconds left.
The loss for Chabot secured second place for Skyline in the final Coast North Conference standings. Third place Chabot (6-4) came back from a slow start to defeat Skyline, 57-46, in the Feb. 17 conference finale, led by Kelly Tumlin with 20 points. Lala Lautaimi led Skyline (7-3) with 16 points, who also had seven rebounds and three assists. That was the only other league setback for the Lady Trojans outside of a sweep by conference champ CCSF (10-0).
Chabot (11-17) got the No. 20 seed and opens at No. 13 Sierra (17-11) on Wednesday.
